Job 13:16 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Job 13:16

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A hypocrite could not come before him and stand in his presence, says Job, but I shall stand before him, and I shall be free from the charge of hypocrisy. Where does Job’s confidence come from? It is based on his trust in the grace of God. He knows he is not a hypocrite, but his hope does not rest on anything in himself, but on the goodness and mercy of the Lord. Nevertheless it is an attribute of integrity that it knows itself. How does it know? It searches within, ant it asks God to shine his light and to join that search within our hearts, and it finds there a willingness to please God and a hatred of sin. Hypocrisy is such a poison within us that it undermines all true approach to God. A pretended approach may be possible, but not a true approach.Job speaks of his relationship with a certainty and assurance that only one who has heard the voice of God can have. He speaks of future salvation as he thinks of the time when he will be delivered not only from sin and guilt and condemnation, but from all earthly trials and from mortality itself. None can be sure of any of these things unless the Spirit of God gives that assurance in the heart by an authority that is higher than human reason and is able to lift us up above all doubt. Even now the three comforters ought to know that he is not a hypocrite, but if they insist in asserting this, they will receive as full an answer as they could require in the day when God visibly exalts his servant. The only issue that really matters here is whether a man is accepted by God. Only he can put truth in our hearts and create a new nature within us. His evaluation alone determines whether we are counted hypocrites or people of integrity.

Application

How can we be sure that that integrity is genuine, when it is never found in a pure form while we are on earth? Even though at present righteousness is mixed with sin in the believer, because while he is in the flesh he still retains the old nature, yet Job can speak in this way. The same uprightness that will allow him to appear before God without hypocrisy is in him now. Yes, the situation is complex for the believer on earth, as the apostle Paul recognises, ‘For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do’ (Romans 7:19). How in such a confused situation can a man of faith be convinced of the integrity of his heart? Because he is able to distinguish between the operation of these two natures and to say, ‘Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me’ (Romans 7:20). We do sin, but we must never accommodate ourselves to our sin. The enmity between the new nature and old nature must remain at a level of intensity; indeed it must increase as time goes on.

‘We see that hypocrites, who have no devotion or zeal, do nevertheless … martyr themselves, and it appears as if there was nothing but fire and flame in them to get near to God … However it is not that they desire to come directly to God, but they would like to be quit from him without coming to him at all’ (Calvin – English updated).

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Job 13:16 Commentary and Bible Study